#Movies

Comic book recognition

Tear down the ivory towers, obliterate the false differences between experts and hobbyists. End proscriptive grammar and let descriptive grammar reign. Accept that knowledge is a journey and usurp the title of “expert” from the dinosaurs who seek comfort from a chaotic world by telling everyone “how it is.”

I’ll save the full manifesto for some other time but in that spirit I’d like to praise a line from Ebert’s review of The Dark Knight

Vann Siegert has got to

Vann Siegert has got to be one of the more fascinating characters to hit the big screen in recent years. He’s played by Owen Wilson in The Minus Man. He may be a serial killer, but he’s really a nice guy. I think what struck me most is the lack of structure and pattern that he has incorporated into his life. At one point he opines “I’m just a comet drifting through the atmosphere.” He acts only when he has to, and he maximizes the impact he makes. He observes and tries to discern the patterns going on around him and how he fits into them. He describes this as “I take the natural momentum of a person and I draw it to me.” The only plan he has is to decode the world around him as it unfolds and react. This includes when he kills people. He just responds to an urge within him. The victims are arbitrary. Of course, I can’t imagine how a killer could work in any way where he thought about consequences to his actions.

Chimchim stumbled across the photography

Chimchim stumbled across the photography of Spencer Tunick and that reminded me of the HBO America Undercover special I saw about him. Which reminded me that the excellent documentary “How’s Your News?” is supposed to be on HBO. I decided to go look it up and they have their own website. Unfortunately it won’t be on HBO till April 2002. Which means no video release till after that some time, if ever.

I saw Planet of the

I saw Planet of the Apes last night. I saw it the way I like seeing movies best, a virgin. I had avoided hype, spoilers and news about the movie. I went knowing that it was a remake, and who some of the cast and crew are and that was it. I went with Michael and some of his friends to the 10:10 showing. I was pleasantly surprised by the opening score and I was reminded by the credits that Danny Elfman does all of Tim Burton’s movies. The score provided a nice mix of primal base with the drums and the brass brought in a feeling of cool technology which fit the themes behind the film effectively. The movie unfolded fairly traditionally after that with the first ten minutes of shots establishing things that would be important later in the film. The dialogue was fairly tight and again was there to set the scene for later things in the movie. The editing for the rest of the film seemed to be fairly tight, and it appeared that a whole section of the movie dealing with a love interest between Leo and Daena was cut out. One thing that seems to stand out in contrast to the entire rest of the movie is the ending. Just what that ending means, other than some winking nod to the original, is beyond me.